2000 F250 with 7.3L Power Stroke Diesel. No power to 'Power

Customer Question

2000 F250 with 7.3L Power Stroke Diesel. No power to 'Power Distribution Box' under the hood. Thus, no power to anything on the truck. Just replaced the batteries. Where is this box sourced from? I don't see the conductor feeding positive DC to it.

We bought the truck second-hand for our son. I don't know if anything was done, but the battery terminals and terminal clamps were in rough shape. Soon after we bought it, the truck began to fail to 'turn over'. We then had to 'jump-start' the truck. We had to jump start by connecting the jumper cables to the driver-side battery. This was also somewhat difficult as we seemed to have to let the healthy vehicle battery stay connected to the driver-side battery for a long time before we could jump start it. I also shook the driver-side ground cable from the driver-side battery negative terminal. After shaking this ground, the truck started. This negative terminal had a ground cable with a clamp-style connector that was heavily corroded. I'm not sure if the cable shaking intermittently created a better connection or not, allowing the truck to start. Subsequently, while rolling up the jumper cables, I noticed they were hot. My son then drove the vehicle to the driveway on the other side of the house and, once there after parking, he said the lights went off by themselves and then the dash lights went out. He then switched the truck off and could not restart it. In light of having trouble starting the truck, I suspected the ground on the driver's side and the battery terminal clamps on the batteries themselves were not good. I've replaced the driver-side battery ground and the positive battery cabling with a Ford factory replacement. Now, there's no power to anything including the power distribution box under the hood. I'm looking for what feeds the power distribution box but the cable bundle going into the connector at the rear of the power distribution box is just about impossible to follow. I'm wondering if something has opened up between the batteries and the power distribution box, but have no idea where to look. In aftermarket service manuals, it simply refers to the power distribution box as 'always hot'.

Customer:replied 2 years ago.

The negative 'clamp-style' terminal I mentioned is an aftermarket type that one would use to replace the factory terminal. One would cut off the original terminal, strip back about a half inch of insulation, and then tighten a flat plate (strap) onto the bare conductor with two screws.

From the battery to the power distribution box there should be a fusible link. On the passenger side inspect the starter solenoid very closely. These fusible links near by should be in good shape and not brittle at all. That is going to be the problem. If you are unable to find the wire I would run a new 4ga wire from the battery for the power box.

I don't see anything that remotely looks like a fusible link. Are these links in a plastic container (small, rectangular box)? The one I'm wondering about is one that looks to have a white top (that's now kind of yellowish due to age). I think the top can come off by lifting a couple of tabs; one on each side of the box.

Found no fusible links. I know something has opened up to prevent positive DC from reaching the power distribution box, but cannot find the path. It's really strange that I cannot find anything underneath the hood that looks remotely like a fusible link. They must be concealed very well. I suppose I'm going to end up taking this truck to the Ford dealership and 'paying thru the nose'.